Posted by: Helen Walters on July 2, 2007

I confess. I’m a bit squeamish. I haven’t eaten meat for hundreds of years and if a mosquito comes into my bedroom I try to strike a deal whereby I won’t kill it as long as it promises not to sting me (never seems to work, sadly). Zoos? Well, zoos make me cry, even though I love (live) animals and honestly understand very well that conservation is key and if it weren’t for these sanctuaries, the animals would be dead and and and. Anyway, here’s a rather innovative solution to my problem. The Robotarium is an entirely bonkers art project by Portugese artist, Leonel Moura, which consists of a metal enclosure filled with robots. I love the descriptions that you find on the accompanying Website: The Araneax is black and spider like and will make threatening gestures until a visitor goes away; in trying to follow sunlight, the Robotapondera “gets very excited and active”. Poor old Zoids are virtually indetectable, so all the big bully robots run them over and cut off their tails. Apparently, it’s a robot eat robot world out there. There’s also some video here:

Dutch artist, Theo Jansen is also doing some amazing work with kinetic sculptures. There’s just something so compelling about these wholly mesmerising, entirely inhuman creatures.

About

What comes next? The Bloomberg Businessweek Innovation and Design blog chronicles new tools
for creativity and collaboration, innovation case studies in both the corporate and social sectors, and the new ideas that have the power to change the way things have always been done.